Skydive lovin' and living in the present

I used to think they were nuts. They jump out of perfectly good planes just for fun (and for a living). They strap this parachute on them (that hopefully was packed well), they pull a chord (that hopefully deploys the chute), they jump out of a plane (that hopefully the pilot knows how to fly). THEY ARE CRAZY... this cousin of mine and her man. Or... so I thought. 

And then I experienced something. My husband and I went over to their place for dinner. Ohhhh... did we have fun! GREAT food. GOOD wine. GUITAR hero. YOU TUBE videos. Music. Friendship. Family. Laughter. And I noticed something about them that I wanted for myself. They LIVED in EVERY moment. They were fully present in the "now". Passionate living is what I'd like to call it. And yet I think it's even more than that.

I have a feeling it has something to do with jumping out of these perfectly good airplanes. Not that you have to jump out of planes to really experience life... but that there is something absolutely essential to really "getting life", really "grabbing a hold of what you have"... really "living in every moment"... 

YOU GOTTA LET GO.   

"Keep walking, though there's no place to get to. Don't try to see through the distances. That's not for human beings. 

Move within, but don't move the way fear makes you move. 

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened.

Don't open the door to the study and begin reading.

Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do. 

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground."

-RUMI

After we left their house that night... they went out on the lake, laid down in the snow, and looked up at the stars.

Here's to skydiving. Here's to family. Here's to the eternal present. 

Maybe one day I'll muster up the courage to jump.